Things to do when you can’t sleep: lxxii

Kneeling down and bowing before the oven: severe demands of the inanimate object, without any of the dubious pleasures of idolatry. I refused to offer it Pow, Woosh, Zip, Whizz or any other such pricey commodity, confining myself to elbow grease and savage abrasion with a steel scourer, until they had removed a judicious quantity of black. And skin.